During the election campaign of municipal councils and mayors, potential attempts to artificially increase the visibility of the content published by certain candidates were recorded on the social network Facebook. In response to possible violations, the non-governmental organizations Debunk.org and White Gloves filed a complaint with the Central Election Commission, according to a press release.
Debunk.org along with Vilnius University Researchers from the Faculty of Communication identified possible cases of increasing the visibility of artificial content on the Facebook social network, thanks to which the social interactions of the posts of the candidate for mayor of the city of Vilnius Petros Gražulis were simulated, thus creating an unrealistic impression of the politician's support and popularity.
Evaluating the authenticity of interactions in social networks using the conversion funnel principle. From the total number of views, approximately 2-7 percent. users comment, share, and/or like. Therefore, the case of fewer views than interactions is not logically possible unless platform manipulation techniques are used, the report noted.
In the case of Mr. Gražulis, 56 videos were uploaded to the candidate's personal Facebook account during the election campaign. in 49 cases social. the number of interactions is higher than the views, which would not be possible without manipulation. The mentioned 49 videos collected a total of 26141 social shares. interactions and only 2823 views.
"For example, on P. Gražulis's Facebook account in 2023 January 19 the posted post "I took people's suggestions into account, added another sticker to the panel, for Lithuania WITHOUT canned food" has only 93 views, but has collected as many as 425 "like" clicks and 56 comments. It should be noted that views on the social network Facebook are counted 3 seconds after the start of viewing the video, so a significantly higher number of interactions compared to the number of views indicates inauthentic activity on the social network. This may be an attempt to manipulate the platform's algorithm in order to get the content seen by as many people as possible," the statement reads.
Similar cases have been identified in other records of the candidate for the post of mayor of the city of Vilnius: January 19 video on Mr. Gražulis's Facebook account: 425 reactions, 56 comments, and only 93 views. January 14 video: 1,3 thousand interactions, 221 comments and only 466 views. January 23 video - 423 reactions, 40 comments and only 234 views
"The use of social media manipulation during election campaigns is dangerous because it creates the illusion that specific politicians or parties have a lot of support. In this way, public opinion is affected, people's decisions are influenced, and this has a direct impact on the election results," says Viktoras Daukšas, head of Debunk.org.
In the case under consideration, the possible use of bots in order to influence the popularity and distribution of posts on the social network Facebook violates the basic, legally regulated principles of elections: transparency, justice, honesty and fair competition.
"Voters need to know that candidates can use illegal social media to promote their posts. media platform manipulation tools. In addition, the political campaign spread by the candidate must correspond to reality, as it can influence the choice of the voters. In this case, by distorting the indicators of posts published on the social network Facebook, an impression of greater support is created, which can mislead undecided citizens", says V. Daukšas.
"White gloves record more and more violations of political agitation in the Internet space in every election. Although it is generally possible to identify campaign violations and apply legal liability for them, the possibilities to quickly identify and prove precisely such cases, where the visibility of posts on social networks is artificially increased, are limited. The use of such technologies in election campaigning is recorded for the first time, and it is likely that similar cases, perhaps even on a larger scale, may occur in the future. This poses a huge threat to the transparency of elections and the fair competition of candidates. In the current legal regulation, there are no instruments on the basis of which it would be possible to identify such violations and apply responsibility to the persons responsible for it," says Laimonas Petreikis, head of the organization "Baltosios torstinės".
Although at present the use of social network bots for election campaigning in social networks is not separately regulated, the concept of manipulation of the Internet platform, the prohibition of such activities and the sanctions applied for it are planned to be included in the Law on Public Information of the Republic of Lithuania, thus giving the above-mentioned actions greater significance. These would also be important steps towards 2024. for the presidential, European Parliament and Seimas elections, the report notes.
By submitting a complaint to the Central Electoral Commission, "White Gloves" and "Debunk.org" seek to call on the authorities to take all available legal measures, and in their absence - to ensure their emergence by initiating changes to legal acts in order to prevent future manipulation of the Internet platform by artificially increasing the visibility of content, and responsible entities - to be held accountable in accordance with the procedure established by legal acts.
